The text published by Jean-François Lisée in The duty of January 10 on purchasing power (“The holes in the anti-inflation shield”) addresses a very relevant subject on the societal and environmental levels. The author rightly points out that purchasing power does not have the same meaning for the well-off and the poor.
On a societal level, maintaining the purchasing power of the poor means allowing them to keep their heads above water, to feed themselves, to house themselves and to clothe themselves properly, in short, to survive decently. For the well-off, this essentially allows them to continue the overconsumption that characterizes North American society, which, on an environmental level, has disastrous effects on the planetary environment. For the future of our planet, maintaining everyone’s purchasing power is not desirable and should not be a societal objective.
Why devote so much effort to maintaining the purchasing power of the well-off? If we devoted all our efforts to increasing the purchasing power of the underprivileged segment of society and deliberately allowed the purchasing power of over-consumers to erode, we would gain both on a societal and economic level. environmental plan. Many well-off people need to stop seeing themselves as people who are struggling because they can’t afford all the gadgets advertised on television or afford a plane trip.
Will we always refuse to recognize the links, although scientifically established, between the accelerated disappearance of species (like the caribou), the degradation of the planetary environment, the overconsumption of our society and our economic objectives?
To watch on video